The end of the first week of the electoral campaign has already started to show signs of monotony as political parties’ front-liners repeat their message over and over again, in a bid to win as many votes as possible.

Political events galore ... numerous billboards carrying political messages along the main roads ... the media dominated by politics, and debates about the political parties’ proposals and their possible long- and short-term effects.

Political parties and some candidates have also resorted to promoting themselves by means of web logs, better known as blogs, websites and even Facebook accounts.

It is practically impossible for anyone not to get involved in the political debate, or at least come across some political message or other, even though a colleague of mine surprised me when he said he met a shop owner who had no clue that a general election was coming up.

Having a look at the content of the political messages we have been bombarded with over the past week, the MLP’s main shout of change was immediately evident – “the need for change that people are after”, we’ve been told.

Apart from this, one of the party’s cornerstones of its campaign is that it would adopt a “zero tolerance towards corruption” policy, and it continued to reveal what it referred to as PN government cases of corruption and abuse.

On one particular occasion last week, Labour leader Alfred Sant went as far as listing 20 such cases, and the following day he said more cases of bad governance and abuse would be revealed.

Among the main issues mentioned during the MLP’s campaign over the past week were its plans to reduce the surcharge on utility bills by half, remove income tax on overtime, remove VAT on education, reduce hospital waiting lists by 15 per cent, control the cost of living and introduce a reception class between kindergarten and the first year of primary school.

The latter proposal was the subject of much controversy, particularly because the PN criticised it point blank, saying it would be nothing but a repeating class and would be of no benefit to children’s education.

Another area of controversy was undoubtedly Dr Sant’s plan to re-open negotiations with the European Union on chapters of the accession treaty, that needed to be discussed in the national interest.

The PN’s main message during the first week of the campaign, on the other hand, was that it is the safer choice over Labour; the PN has a proven stability and track record, Nationalist leader Lawrence Gonzi said during a mass event on the Granaries in Floriana on Sunday.

However the real news last week was the PN’s pledge to reduce the maximum income tax payable to 25 per cent for people earning less than e60,000.

Two days after this announcement, Dr Gonzi said this would cost the government e46 million, and added that this would not harm economic growth.

The PN is also pledging to continue attracting foreign direct investment and further develop the ICT and pharmaceutical sectors in a bid to create more employment opportunities, based on the party’s 2015 vision to make the country a centre of excellence in six different areas – information technology, financial services, tourism, manufacturing, education and health services.

As for the smaller parties that hope to elect at least one MP, Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) and Azzjoni Nazzjonali (AN), they had a number of proposals that were given less importance.

According to AD chairman Harry Vassallo a single party government has several disadvantages, as it precludes valid people from contributing to the good of the country.

One of AD’s main priorities is to secede planning from environment at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa).

AD has also proposed to introduce local referenda for projects subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment.

AN, on the other hand, has spoken widely about the fact that political parties should tell the truth to the people about their rights regarding a natural gas pipeline running on the continental shelf, and that using oil drilling as an electoral gimmick should be stopped.

AN leader Josie Muscat has said that the Maltese deserved an explanation as to whether Malta has given its consent to the pipeline to be laid on its continental shelf and whether it had ceded its rights.

And the political debate continues. You would wonder how many people will end up voting with their heads rather than their hearts. In any case, let’s hope for three and a half weeks of intelligent discussion and not the same old proposals repeated over and over again.